Abstract: An exogenous substance transfer apparatus that introduces an exogenous substance into a small amount of cells by electrical action and a method for manufacturing exogenous substance-bearing cells at low cost are provided. In the introducing an exogenous substance like a gene into a cell, a cell suspension liquid that contains the cell and the exogenous substance is supplied to a container through an opening portion in an amount that is prepared such that a liquid droplet that is formed will not come into contact with a pair of electrodes simultaneously. The liquid droplet is formed in an oil stored in the container, without the cell suspension liquid mixing with the oil. When a direct current voltage is supplied to the electrodes from a power supply, the liquid droplet moves there-between, and the exogenous substance is introduced into the cell within the liquid droplet by electrical action.

Abstract: A negative electrode for use in an iron-air secondary battery of the present invention comprises a three-dimensionally formed structure in which particles of metal powder comprising iron or an iron alloy as a principal component are coupled to each other through metallic bonding, wherein the negative electrode has a porosity of greater than or equal to 30% and less than or equal to 70%. A production method of a negative electrode for an iron-air secondary battery of the present invention comprises: mixing with a resin, metal powder comprising iron or an iron alloy as a principle component; molding a mixture obtained after the mixing; and sintering a molded body obtained after the molding.

Abstract: Provided is a charge-transfer-type sensor suitable for high integration while eliminating a potential barrier. A sensor provided with a semiconductor substrate 10 partitioned into a sensing region 5 in which a potential varies in corresponding fashion to a variation in the external environment, a charge input region 2 for supplying charges to the sensing region 5, an input charge control region 3 interposed between the sensing region 5 and the charge input region 2, and a charge accumulation region 7 for accumulating electric charges transported from the sensing region 5, the sensor for detecting the amount of electric charges accumulated in the charge accumulation region 7, wherein a diffusion layer 4 is formed between the input charge control region 3 and the sensing region 5 of the substrate 10, and dopants for producing charges having the same polarity as the charges supplied from the charge input region 2 are diffused in the diffusion layer 4.

Abstract: To enable a ladle-tilting automatic pouring device to take less time for identification of the parameters and the device to pour highly precisely by sequentially updating pouring model parameters according to the pouring situation, the present pouring control method is based on a mathematical model of a process from input of control parameters to pouring of molten metal, the method including: identifying, using an optimization technique, a flow rate coefficient, a liquid density, and a pouring start angle that is a tilting angle of the pouring ladle when the flowing of the molten metal starts, which are the control parameters in the mathematical model, based on weight of liquid that flows out of the pouring ladle and tilting angle of the ladle that are measured during pouring, and a command signal that controls the tilting of the pouring ladle; and updating the control parameters to the identified control parameters.

Abstract: [Problem to Be Solved] A pouring control method for controlling an automatic pouring device with a tilting-type ladle is provided. By the method, a lip of a pouring ladle approaches a sprue of a mold without striking any object located within the range of its movement. Also, by the method, the molten metal that runs out of the ladle can accurately fill the mold.

Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to measure pH of a sample with high accuracy in a pH sensor array, without the use of a glass reference electrode. Each time that a sample is measured, the potential Vrm of the sample is identified, and the identified potential Vrm is used to calculate the pH. The outputs Voi1 and Voi2 of a first element and a second element located near one another in a sensor array are represented as follows. Voi1=Si1×pHi1+Gi1×Vrm+Ci1, Voi2=Si2×pHi2+Gi2×Vrm+Ci2. Voi is the output of the element, Si and Gi are sensitivity coefficients, and Ci is a constant, these values having been derived in advance. Here, where the potential Vrm is constant, and the elements located near one another are presumed to be at equal pH (pHi1=pHi2), the potential Vrm is identified by solving a linear equation with two unknowns.

Abstract: Provided is an optical body capable of arbitrarily and quickly controlling the optical characteristics of incident light. A refractive index variable layer (8) formed of PLZT or other material and a magneto-optical material layer (9) formed of garnet or other material are provided side by side between a first reflective layer (3) and a second reflective layer (5). If linearly polarized light is made incident from the side of the first reflective layer (3), the incident light interacts with the magneto-optical material layer (9) and is converted into a right-circularly polarized light component and a left-circularly polarized light component. A very small retardation occurring between both the right- and left-circularly polarized light components is amplified through multiple reflections between the pair of reflective layers (3, 5) and is controlled according to a controlled refractive index of the refractive index variable layer (8).

Abstract: A front stage circuit of a transformer includes a switch series unit, capacitors, and a ground electrical path. The switch series unit, connected in parallel to a power supply, includes odd-numbered/even-numbered switches configured to be alternately turned ON. Assuming that mutual connection points of the switches and points at both ends of the switch series unit are m nodes in total, and one of the points at the both ends is a ground node, the capacitors are provided on at least one of a first electrical path that combines odd nodes and leads them to a first output port, and a second electrical path that combines even nodes and leads them to a second output port, and the capacitors are present to correspond to (m?1) nodes excluding the ground node. The ground electrical path connects the ground node directly to the first output port without an interposed capacitor.

Abstract: A transformer includes a front stage circuit and a rear stage circuit. As a front stage circuit, a switch series unit, which is connected in parallel to a power supply, includes odd-numbered switches and even-numbered switches alternately turned ON. Mutual connection points of the respective switches and points at both ends of the switch series unit are regarded as m nodes in total. Capacitors are provided on at least one of a first electrical path combining odd nodes to lead them to a first output port, and a second electrical path combining even nodes to lead them to a second output port. The capacitors are present so as to correspond to at least (m?1) nodes. The rear stage circuit includes an element series unit, which is composed of a pair of semiconductor elements connected in series to each other for conducting operations of mutually opposite polarities, and necessary inductors.

Abstract: Provided are a device for detecting chemical and physical phenomenon suitable for high integration, and a method therefor. Rather than using a TG section signal to select pixels that require charge measurement, the on-off timing (the timing for moving the charge from a sensing section to an FD section) of the TG section is harmonized for all pixels, and the release or injection of the charge to the sensing section is separately controlled, whereby the charge is held only in sensing sections of pixels that require charge measurement, and the charge is emptied in sensing sections of pixels that do not require charge measurement. In this state, the TG section of all pixels can be opened at the same time, whereby the charge is transferred to the FD section from only the sensing sections holding a charge, and the charge level of the pixel is detected.

Abstract: A transformer of distributed-constant type is provided between an AC power supply with a frequency f and a load with a resistance value R, and includes: a first converter connected to the AC power supply and having a length of ?/4; and a second converter provided between an end of the first converter and the load, and having a length of ?/4, where a wavelength at the frequency f is ?. Such a transformer has a small size and a light weight, and does not need a coil, an iron core, and the like as used in a conventional transformer.

Abstract: Provided is a small-sized device for measuring an oxidation-reduction potential, whereby an oxidation-reduction current and an oxidation-reduction potential can be measured by reducing noise even when a signal from a solution being measured is small. A device for measuring an oxidation-reduction potential is provided with a substrate (10), a working electrode (15) mounted on a surface of the substrate (10), and a bipolar transistor (21) for amplifying the output of the working electrode (15) also provided on the surface of the substrate (10), and the signal amplified by the bipolar transistor (21) is inputted to a processing circuit (18).

Abstract: A power conversion apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a high-voltage side input terminal TIH and a low-voltage side input terminal TIL, first and second output terminals TO1 and TO2, a power conversion circuit 10 that converts direct-current power input between the high-voltage side input terminal TIH and the low-voltage side input terminal TIL to generate alternating-current power between the first and second output terminals TO1 and TO2, and an inverted-voltage generation circuit 30 that generates an inverted voltage of a common mode voltage generated between the first and second output terminals TO1 and TO2 and inputs the inverted voltage to the low-voltage side input terminal TIL.

Abstract: A three-dimensional image projector includes: a conversion optical system including a plate-shaped first optical member that has an incidence surface is incident, and an emission surface and that converts a traveling direction of the image light so as to form a predetermined angle between the emission surface and an emission direction of the image light on the emission surface; a rotary driving unit that drives the conversion optical system so as to rotate along the emission surface with a predetermined point on the emission surface as the center of rotation; and an image projection unit that is erected along a rotation axis, converts the traveling direction of the image light emitted from the conversion optical system into a first direction along a surface crossing the rotation axis, and diffuses the image light emitted from the conversion optical system in a second direction along the rotation axis.

Abstract: Provided is a device adapted for detecting chemical and physical phenomena and suitable for high integration, and a method for controlling the detection device. When a plurality of pH-detecting devices are used, a variation in sensitivity occurs in each of the sensing units. The variation in sensitivity can be calibrated using a simple method. The amount of charge (output signal) delivered by each of the sensing units to a standard solution is determined, and the difference between the delivered charge amount and a standard charge amount (standard output signal) delivered by a standard sensing unit is determined. The capacity of the potential well of the sensing unit is changed, or the potential of a TG unit when a charge is delivered is changed, so as to cancel out the difference.

Abstract: A piezoelectric element includes a substrate having a first surface with a predetermined orientation; a lower electrode layered on the first surface of the substrate; a piezoelectric thin film layered on the lower electrode and having a piezoelectric body; and an upper electrode layered on the piezoelectric thin film. A voltage is to be impressed between the lower electrode and the upper electrode to deform the piezoelectric thin film. The piezoelectric thin film is epitaxially grown on the lower electrode using a physical vapor deposition or a chemical vapor deposition.

Abstract: Contacting a pair of electrodes with soil, applying an alternate current input electric signal to one of the pair of electrodes, comparing a phase of an output electric signal from the other of the pair electrodes with a phase of the input electric signal; and determining the concentration of the ionic solute included in the solvent according to a difference of the phases. The difference of the phases is not dependent on the water content. An electrical conductivity is proportional to a water content and ion concentration, thereby, the water content of soil is available according to the measured electrical conductivity, while determining the ion concentration.

Abstract: [Problem to be solved] To provide a pouring control method, for a ladle-tilting automatic pouring device, where the operation for identification of the parameters, which normally takes much time to complete, can take less time and the device can pour with a high degree of precision by sequentially updating pouring model parameters according to the pouring situation.

Abstract: A method for controlling the respective input voltages transmitted to a servomotor that tilts the ladle such that the molten metal that flows from the ladle drops accurately into the pouring gate in the mold, a servomotor that moves the ladle back and forth, and a servomotor that moves the ladle up and down, by using a computer. In the method, a mathematical model of the area on which the molten metal that flows from the ladle will drop is produced, and then the inverse problem of the produced mathematical model is solved. In view of the effect of a contracted flow, the position on which molten metal drops is estimated by the estimating device for estimating the pouring rate and the estimating device for estimating the position on which molten metal will drop.

Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to measure pH of a sample with high accuracy in a pH sensor array, without the use of a glass reference electrode. Each time that a sample is measured, the potential Vrm of the sample is identified, and the identified potential Vrm is used to calculate the pH. The outputs Voi1 and Voi2 of a first element and a second element located near one another in a sensor array are represented as follows. Voi1=Si1×pHi1+Gi1×Vrm+Ci1, Voi2=Si2×pHi2+Gi2×Vrm+Ci2. Voi is the output of the element, Si and Gi are sensitivity coefficients, and Ci is a constant, these values having been derived in advance. Here, where the potential Vrm is constant, and the elements located near one another are presumed to be at equal pH (pHi1=pHi2), the potential Vrm is identified by solving a linear equation with two unknowns.